1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the technical area of virtual environments, and pertains in particular to video games.
2. Description of Related Art
Video games are notoriously well-known in the art, and in many games players control avatars that are functional in the game. For example, a player may move the avatar in a virtual environment, cause the avatar to run, jump or swim, open doors, scale walls, pick up weapons and use the weapons in contentions with other characters in the game. The user may control an avatar to access a vehicle, such as a helicopter, and to fly the helicopter over the virtual landscape. The landscape may move and change as a game progresses. Avatars may cooperate with one another as well as contend with one another.
Many games have underlying rules by which players may accumulate points, collect artifacts or acquire virtual currency. The rules of a game are limited only by the imagination of the creator of the game, who typically creates the game through high-level programming languages. Salable video games are a very big industry, and creators go the great lengths to provide games in which the dynamics of elements and objects in the game behave realistically.
The present inventors work and innovate in a gaming enterprise wherein systems and tools are provided for clients to create games, rather than just to participate in games that have been completely preprogrammed. In this environment a software suite is provided whereby a client may access tools, artifacts and objects to create landscapes, building, machines such as vehicles and weapons, bridges, doors, lakes, waterfalls, and much more. The client also has access to tools to create dynamics for objects and functional relationships between objects. Once a client has created a game using the pre-programmed elements, the creator client can publish the game on the platform that supports the virtual environments for the games, and other players may join and participate in the games created.
The present inventors have conceived a new dynamic for such games created by clients that brings a new dimension of contention and accomplishment.